I’m no stranger to struggles with weight loss. I first started dieting and exercising to change my weight when I was 16 years old, although if I had my way I likely would’ve started earlier- even though I was a slim girl, I never saw myself that way. Just because I was one or two pant sizes bigger than the other girls in my class, I thought I was huge. 

I also didn’t have good role models growing up- the women in my family were constantly hating on their bodies and always dieting. I thought that if I didn’t have a flat tummy, toned arms and a “thigh gap”, I was unworthy of being called “beautiful”.

Throughout the next several years, I dieted on an off basically all the time, usually by restricting my fat intake, lowering my calories and doing loads of cardio and attending bootcamp exercises classes at the local rec centre. 

It always worked temporarily, until I was in my early 20s and was diagnosed with PCOS. Calorie counting didn’t work, and when I went back to the treadmill, I gained even MORE weight. I couldn’t understand what the fuck was going on, and I felt like a failure. 

Although doctors and various “experts” over the last several decades have heavily promoted long cardio sessions and hardcore bootcamp classes as being the best for weight loss, this is a total MYTH, and a myth I’m super excited to BUST for you today. 

The Bad Science

First of all, let’s talk science. 

The thought process behind using cardio for weight loss centres around calorie expenditure. For instance, 1 pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. So, if you want to lose 1 pound per week, you need to burn an extra 500 calories per day according to this theory. 

Doctors and others may suggest that doing an hour on the treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike daily with some calorie restriction on your food will get you there. But what happens at the end of the week when you’ve burned all these calories and the scale still doesn’t budge?

Part of this has to do with heart rate. When you do cardio, it’s at a steady pace for the entire time. Generally, this is inefficient at burning fat, as variations in heart rate (like in High-Intensity Interval Training) become more effective partly by “keeping your body guessing” and putting yourself into that fat burning zone. 

Also, doing long, drawn out cardio often leaves us tired and hungry. So we eat more. Or, if we have the willpower to stick with the 1,200 calories a day we’ve chosen for our weight loss diet, we aren’t giving our bodies the proper fuel to recover from this exercise, which creates a mess in your body. We’ll talk about this more in the next section. 

Your Body On Cardio and Bootcamps

To help you understand WHY these forms of exercise are inefficient for weight loss, you must understand HOW your body reacts when you participate in these activities. 

For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to use jogging as an example. 

You go out for a run, hoping to shed those pounds. You slowly work your way up to longer and longer distances. 

As you are running, a stress reaction starts in your body. Cortisol, your main stress hormone, is released. While this is a good thing if you’re literally running for your life, chronically high levels of cortisol (i.e.: from long distance running), tells your body to make and release more sugar into the blood so your body can make more energy. 

Higher levels of blood sugar is one of the simplest ways your body packs on the pounds. Plus, this leaves you feeling ravenous. The sugar and carb cravings will be yelling at you and guess what- you’ll likely eat and average of 100 more calories after you’re done than you burned off during the exercise!

Additionally, doing this type of exercise (or other cardio and bootcamps), causes your body to burn muscle instead of fat. Less lean muscle mass slows your metabolism, and it becomes even harder to burn those calories to get the weight off. Plus, you’ll become weaker, more tired and more irritable. And your hormones will start screaming at you. 

High levels of cortisol and imbalanced blood sugar mean hormonal hell. Your body steals building blocks (like pregnenolone and progesterone) to make more cortisol, leaving you deficient in progesterone. Low progesterone isn’t able to keep estrogen in check, so estrogen dominance can result. 

Estrogen dominance then starts a STORM in your body of weight gain- especially in the hips, thighs, belly and back- and moodiness, anxiety, depression and of course- bad periods. 

Many women with hormonal imbalances with estrogen dominance at the root (like PCOS, Endometriosis, PMS, and heavy, painful or irregular periods) feel the worst when they do cardio and bootcamps because it increases their symptoms- even if during the exercise they feel fabulous. 

You can read more about Estrogen Dominance to see if this hormonal imbalance is part of your inability to lose weight and improve your emotional state by clicking here. 

What Can Be Done Instead

So that’s all great- but what can you actually do to effectively burn fat without losing muscle and creating hormonal imbalances?

First, correct your hormonal imbalances with food. 

You cannot out-exercise a bad diet ladies.

It’s just not possible. No matter how long you stay on that treadmill or how many bootcamp classes you attend, if you’re scarfing down a bagel for breakfast and eating take out for dinner every night, the scale is going to climb. 

Second, switch your exercise to the fat-burning kind. The de-stressor kind. Think High-Intensity Interval Training for 20-30 minutes max, and some yoga to balance it out.

There are so many different reasons our bodies may be suffering, trying to figure it all out can be dizzying. Hormone imbalance is really a hot topic these days in the wellness sphere, and for good reason. 

Millions of women everywhere are suffering needlessly with hormonal imbalances. Busy, stressful lives, widespread toxicity, poor diet and sedentary lifestyle are contributing to these imbalances which seem to plague us. 

As you may be aware, I have hormonal imbalances myself. I have PCOS as well as an underactive thyroid gland. I deal with adrenal insufficiency as well. All of these issues seem to be connected, and the hormone estrogen is one of those connections. 

If you’re struggling with weight gain in the hips, thighs, belly and back, or are dealing with mood problems and bad periods, I urge you to read on. What you will discover may be the lightbulb moment you need to begin taking targeted and natural action to smooth your symptoms and allow you to LIVE again. 

What Is Estrogen Dominance?

First of all, let’s get this out of the way. Educating yourself about WHAT is going on in your body and WHY (this comes below) will give you the direction you need to keep going. 

Estrogen dominance is a term that’s become quite popular, but many don’t truly understand what it means. Often we think “dominance” must mean too much, but this is not the case.

Estrogen dominance is simply an imbalance in the ratio of estrogen to progesterone, in favour of estrogen. This could mean that:

(1) You have excessively high levels of estrogen

(2) You have normal estrogen and low progesterone

(3) You have low estrogen and extremely low progesterone

Therefore, it is possible for women of all ages (even through and beyond menopause) to be estrogen dominant. There are 3 main estrogens, (1) estradiol, (2) estriol and (3) estrone. For the purposes of this article, I’m talking about estradiol- the estrogen that is most important throughout our lifespan. On the flip side, estriol is highest in pregnancy, and estrone becomes the dominant estrogen post-menopause. 

What Are The Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance?

There are so many different symptoms or complaints of estrogen dominance, and I’ll outline them below based on the 3 possible variations of estrogen dominance we discussed above. 

(1) Excessively high levels of estrogen and low progesterone

• Sore, swollen and tender breasts
• Breast growth beyond puberty
• Swelling in the hands/fingers, legs and ankles
• Menstrual cramps
• Heavy menstrual flow
• Impatience 
• Being called “too bossy”

(2) Normal to high estrogen and low progesterone

• Absent periods
• Irregular periods
• Menstrual flow clotting
• Sore, tender breasts
• Water retention/swelling
• Fibrocystic breasts
• Fibroids
• Endometriosis 

(3) Low estrogen and extremely low progesterone

• Memory loss
• Depression 
• Hot flashes or night sweats
• Vaginal dryness
• Low libido
• Chronic fatigue
• Insomnia
• Sagging breasts
• Quick weight gain
• Bloating 
• Absent or irregular periods

Other, more general symptoms and signs of estrogen dominance include:

• Accelerated aging
• Hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) – feeling “hangry” between meals
• Premenopausal bone loss
• Thyroid dysfunction
• Uterine cancer and fibroids
• Breast cancer
• PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)
• Ovarian cysts
• Anovulation 
• Low progesterone and/or luteal phase defect
• Cervical dysplasia
• Hair loss
• infertility
• irritability
• Mood swings
• PMS or PMDD
• Sluggish metabolism
• Fat deposition in the hips, thighs, belly and back
• Gallbladder disease

How You Get Estrogen Dominance

So how did we get here? What happened in our lives that brought on estrogen dominance and all these bothersome symptoms?

Toxicity 

First and foremost, we must chat about toxicity. There are infinite sources of toxicity in our environment, and we cannot escape it. This sometimes makes us feel like giving up- because if we don’t have control, what’s the point? The truth is we do have control.

The main sources of toxicity we can’t control are:

• Air pollution
• Use of chemicals in clothing, furniture, cars, etc

Sources of toxicity we can control:

• Food and water
• Household cleaning products
• Indoor air environment
• Makeup
• Personal care products such as deodorant and shampoo

As you can see, a lot of the control is in our hands. This is really important, as toxins can disrupt proper estrogen and hormone metabolism (endocrine disruptors) contributing to any or all of the symptoms listed above. 

Specifically, it’s important to watch out for xenoestrogens, man-made estrogens found in many places, including:

• Commercially-raised meat and dairy products like chicken, beef, pork, and all dairy
• Non-organic foods with high levels of insecticides and pesticides
• Tap water
• Shampoos, lotions, soaps, toothpastes, cosmetics, deodorants, etc
• Soft plastics (BPA is a popular xenoestrogen here)
• Artificial food additives, including artificial sweeteners and MSG
• Non-organic soy and soy derivatives like soy protein isolate
• Dryer sheets
• Birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
• Disposable menstrual products like tampons and sanitary pads

The problem with these xenoestrogens is that they mimic the function of our natural estrogen, but in a much stronger or more powerful way. Beyond giving our bodies too much estrogen, they will also disrupt that delicate estrogen-progesterone ratio, the definition of estrogen dominance. 

Poor Diet

Diet is one of those areas where we do have control, and ignoring this is detrimental to our health. As you can see from the above list, five of the ten sources of xenoestrogens mentioned are food-based. 

This makes logical sense then that dietary xenoestrogens are contributing to estrogen dominance. You can also see that these foods aren’t healthy choices either, so eliminating them from your diet is the easiest way to ditch 50% of the xenoestrogens you come into contact with. 

Beyond dietary xenoestrogens, other dietary problems can contribute. For example, if you eat a diet high in refined carbs (think bagels, bread, muffins, noodles, donuts, crackers, etc), your blood sugar and insulin balance will be upset. 

When this happens, insulin messes with your ovaries, changing up estrogen and progesterone balance. Additionally, insulin resistance and blood sugar imbalance create more opportunity for your body to store extra fat and to be anxious, depressed, irritable or down right moody. 

Birth Control and Hormone Replacement Therapy

Medications are another branch of toxicity worth it’s own section. Many women today are on some form of hormones birth control, like the pill, shot, IUD or patch. Other peri- and post-menopausal women are given synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT). 

All of these drugs push high amounts of synthetic estrogen into your body. Because the lab-made estrogen doesn’t look or at the exact way our natural estrogen does, it often binds to receptors first and has the same powerful and harmful action as other xenoestrogens. When women using hormonal birth control pee, the hormones are left in the water system, ending up in tap water. Local filtration systems just aren’t enough to remove the hormones from the water. 

The good news is that there are many non-drug ways to have contraception, or hormone support, depending on your needs. For example, the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) can be used to prevent pregnancy or enhance fertility, depending on your goals. 

Estrogen Dominance and Weight Gain

So what’s the connection between having estrogen dominance and weight gain? It’s pretty simple. 

Estrogen is partly responsible for keeping our metabolisms in good shape. It also helps to maintain fat loss in proper levels. Having too much can slow metabolism, as can having too little. So, you’re more apt to gain weight, especially in the hips, thighs and back, as well as the belly. You might notice you started out as a pear shape, and have gained weight and now have an apple shape, with much of your weight in the belly area as time goes on. 

Beyond this, estrogen dominance negatively interferes with thyroid hormone. The thyroid is the main controller of our metabolism, and of estrogen dominance is slowing our thyroid, our metabolism will slow and we will gain weight. 

Many women with estrogen dominance also have some level of thyroid dysfunction. 

Estrogen Dominance and Mood Problems

Beyond weight gain, mood disturbances are a big light bulb that estrogen dominance may be contributing to your issues. 

When estrogen is in balance, we feel sexy, strong, confident and ready to take on the world. We are uplifted and pleasant to be around. 

When estrogen dominates over progesterone, this can lead to anxiety (progesterone is a calming hormones) and depression, which may be seen even with low estrogen levels. 

Additionally, excess estrogen may have you feeling super irritable, or people may begin calling you bossy because of the way you act. 

These things don’t have to be cause for using anti-depressants, but rather are a signal to bring estrogen and progesterone into balance naturally to restore your moods. 

Estrogen Dominance and Painful, Heavy and Irregular Periods

Another big sign of estrogen dominance is period issues. Specifically, heavy, painful and/or irregular periods.

Having too much estrogen in relation to progesterone can stall or halt ovulation altogether. No ovulation = no period. 

Excessive estrogen also builds up the lining of the uterus more than normal, and often results in heavy periods accompanied by clotting. Pain and menstrual cramping may also be severe with estrogen dominance.
 
 

Cleansing and Detoxing are often thought of as “fads” and to some unnecessary because our organs are made to filter themselves all the time! But in this era we live in people are constantly taking in toxins and other nasty stuff that our bodies are not used to dealing with. The processed foods, unnatural body care products and pollution we encounter is new to us as a species.
 

Our bodies are not designed to filter these types of toxins so they accumulate- which is bad news for us and our hormones! Without being able to excrete excess hormones they build up, and that is bad news!
 

Where Do Toxins Come From?

Food + Water

Firstly, our food and water bring in many toxins. Eating foods that come in boxes, bags and cartons means they have been processed. Most all processed foods shouldn’t really be called foods at all because they contain so few real (like- from the ground) ingredients and mostly chemicals to make them taste, look, smell and feel like food. I’m looking at you- frozen meals, crackers and breakfast cereals!

To add insult to injury, our water is often contaminated with the hormones that women on hormonal birth control pee into our water systems, plus things like fluoride, pesticides and possibly heavy metals.
 

Pollution

Pollution is everywhere. From the air we breath to the sites we see to the people we spend time with. For the purposes of this article, I’m talking about air pollution. There is no limit to the number of chemicals that are pumped into our air and waterways everyday. What’s in our water eventually ends up being evaporated and rained down on us, putting it further into the air and our lives. Large cities tend to have the highest concentrations of this air pollution.
 

Personal Environment

Let’s do a quick definition here. By personal environment, I mean all of these:

• indoor air quality
• cleanliness of the indoor environment (get out your duster!)
• personal care products like deodorant, toothpaste, makeup, menstrual hygiene products, shampoo, conditioner and anything else you put on your body
• household cleaning products like laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent, window washing fluid, furniture polish, and everything in between

5 Rejuvenating Herbs to Detox Your Liver and Balance Your Hormones

#1 Dandelion Root

A very popular herb for both the liver and the kidneys, dandelion is more than just a weed. The root has an affinity for the liver, whereas the leaf likes the kidneys, so for the purposes of this article, I’ll be referring mostly to dandelion root.

Some of the helpful actions of dandelion root include being a bitter tonic, an alternative, and cholagogue. All of this to mean that dandelion root helps your liver and gallbladder to function well, including producing and secreting bile as necessary, and it helps overall digestion and detoxification.

Dandelion root is useful in many symptoms of a toxic body, including:

• Acne
• PMS
• Fibrocystic breasts
• Nausea
• Estrogen Dominance (is this your Hormone Quiz result?)
• Bloating, gas or other digestive issues- especially after eating a heavy meal
• Brain fog, poor short-term memory
• Moodiness, hostility and being quick to anger
• Dandruff, itchy skin and scalp
• Constipation or diarrhea

Dandelion is often combined with other liver-loving and hormone-supporting herbs for best results, as I have done in Detox Tea.

#2 Burdock Root

Burdock, a plant very common around North America, could be hiding in your backyard or local walking trail! It’s the roots of this plant that are used, and burdock pairs especially well with dandelion, yellow dock and milk thistle to cleanse the liver and also to clear skin.

Burdock root is an alterative, diuretic and a bitter. This means that like dandelion root, burdock root helps to cleanse the blood (and clear up skin), and stimulate healthy digestion and detoxification to keep hormones and health optimal.

#3 Yellow Dock

Another root used for helping liver function and detoxification, yellow dock is often harvested from August to October.

It is also a blood-cleansing alterative, making it great for skin issues like acne. It also has the action of stimulating liver and gallbladder function, including production and release of fat-digesting bile.

#4 Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a favourite herb of mine for many health and hormonal issues, and I often recommend it to private clients and the women in my 21-Day Happy Hormones Diet program. You can read more about the menstrual-specific benefits of cinnamon here. 

Cinnamon is a fantastic anti-nauseant, antispasmodic, carminative (anti-gas), uterine anti-hemorrhagic (slows heavy flow) and warming uterine stimulant.

Cinnamon adds beautiful chai-like flavour to my Detox Tea and also serves medicinal purpose. The entire purpose of the Detox Tea is to help women with Estrogen Dominance (take the Quiz to see if this is you) support their hormones and liver to metabolize and detoxify exogenous estrogens properly.

It’s antimicrobial and antiviral properties will also help get rid of pathogens (like candida and parasites) that may be living in your gut, slowing down liver function and creating hormone hell.

#5 Milk Thistle

Last but not least on this list is Milk Thistle. One of the safest liver-cleansing herbs, milk thistle has been used for thousands of years to support liver health. Milk thistle is a tonic to the liver, helping it to rebuild and regenerate this important organ.
 
It makes an important addition in my Detox Tea as it combines really well with the other herbs and provides a supportive, regenerating action that some of the other liver herbs in the Detox Tea do not.

From my very first period, I always experienced menstrual cramps. Not the barely-there, doesn’t-bother-me type, but rather the give me some Advil and let me sleep kind of cramps.

Usually it was accompanied by heavy flow, where I was changing my pad or tampon every couple of hours.

Over the years, I was able to slow my flow, but the cramps continued. As I went through nutrition school and my journey to healing my PCOS, I searched for a non-pharmaceuticul solution. Knowing that over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) like Advil and Tylenol are toxic, can delay ovulation and create some serious stomach and gut issues, natural way the only way to go for me.

Heat packs alone didn’t help, and beyond this I was at a loss. Until I learned about herbal medicine. The idea of using plant-based remedies that had been effective for literally thousands of years really intrigued me, and so I went about developing a combination of medicinal herbs to help reduce menstrual cramps and pain.

Now you can get it yourself in my Cramp Tea, and you can read about each herb and why I selected it to help with your menstrual cramps below.

I simply love the act of brewing a hot cup of pain-relieving tea and curling up with a good movie or book for some “me time” during my moontime. It’s a cyclic ritual that allows me to show myself some love and rejuvenate.

6 Natural Herbs to Help Reduce Menstrual Cramps

#1 Chamomile

Chamomile is one of my favourite medicinal herbs because it’s quite safe to use (even in infants) and has a wide variety of uses. Chamomile flowers can even be grown in your home garden and make a beautiful and functional addition.

Chamomile has many actions, including being anti-inflammatory, spasmolytic, mildly sedative, and carminative. What you need to know from this list is that it’s anti-inflammatory and spasmolytic actions will help to calm uterine contractions.

The mild sedative action is helpful for calming us down and allowing our nervous systems to relax as our uterus does during that time of the month.

#2 Red Raspberry Leaf

A classic female herb, this nutrient-dense leaf from the plant we get our raspberries from provides both support for our reproductive system and loads of essential vitamins and minerals that are supportive to health.

Raspberry lead is a spasmolytic herb that also helps to reduce prostaglandins, a big contributor to menstrual cramps (and menstrual diarrhea).

The antioxidants and vitamins and minerals like vitamin C and iron help support normal menstrual cycles. This is partly why raspberry leaf is known as a uterine tonic, being able to generally strengthen and tone the uterus and entire reproductive system for healthier cycles and flow.

#3 Vitex

Also known as Chaste Berry and Chastetree Berry, this is one of the most popular herbs for women’s health, and it’s one I get asked about a lot. It is mainly found in the mediterranean. It is the berries of the vitex plant that are used as medicine, and this plant is mostly used for female health issues. Vitex can be purchased as capsules, tincture and the dried herb to be used as tea.

Vitex is used for the treatment of female hormonal and fertility issues. The main way that Vitex works is by stimulating the pituitary gland in your brain to produce hormones. Specifically, it stimulates the production of more luteinizing hormone (LH) and progesterone. Both of these hormones spike at or around ovulation.

The way that Vitex is able to get your body to do this is by suppressing prolactin production. Prolactin is a hormone that when high enough will prevent ovulation from occurring, so reducing levels of this hormone is key to increasing LH and progesterone for successful ovulation and a strong luteal phase.

In this way, Vitex indirectly helps with menstrual cramping because it will move to balance progesterone levels, and low levels of progesterone contribute to PMS and resulting menstrual cramping, as well as breast tenderness and irregularities.

If you want to know more about Vitex and whether it’s right for you, check this out.

#4 Cramp Bark

Native to Eastern North America, Cramp Bark (aka Viburnum opulus) is a classically used medicinal for dysmenorrhea or menstrual cramping. Cramp Bark is a uterine tonic, uterine anti-spasmodic and musculoskeletal anti-spasmodic, making it perfect for cramps.

Because of it’s affinity for reducing spasm in the uterus, it’s also been used for threatened miscarriage, UTI spams, irritable bladder, and chronic pelvic pain.

This herb can be used dried in a tea (as in Cramp Tea) or as a tincture. Typically it is recommended that this herb (along with the others on this list) be used a few days prior to the period and during the whole bleed for best results.

Do not use this herb if you have kidney problems and shouldn’t been used during pregnancy or lactation without supervision from a qualified herbal practitioner.

#5 Ginger

Ginger is widely used in cooking and is seriously delicious. It’s so versatile, and can be used in both sweet and savoury dishes. It can also be used medicinally, as a tea, tincture or capsules. I use ginger quite a bit in the Tea Shop, and it plays a big role in my Cramp Tea.

Some of the many actions of ginger or Zingiber officinale include being a carminative (anti-gas), anti-nauseant, spasmolytic, anti-inflammatory, and a digestive stimulant. In fact- it has many of the same properties as chamomile, as these herbs are often combine together.

Many women experience digestive upset alongside their menstrual flow and cramps, making ginger an ideal choice. In studies for it’s anti-inflammatory benefits, it has been shown just as or more effective than over-the-counter NSAIDs.

In an Iranian study on women with dysmenorrhea, after using ginger for just one menstrual cycle, the severity of their cramps went from 28% to 8% and 36% of these women were “considerably relieved” from their cramps using ginger.

#6 Parsley

An unusual choice, and most often thought of as a culinary herb, parsley has many medicinal benefits as well.

One special property of parsley is it being an emmenagogue meaning that it stimulates menstrual flow. This is perfect for women who notice brown/pinkish spotting before their red flow arrives or experience menstrual cycle irregularities.

Like raspberry leaf, parsley contains many menstrual-supportive nutrients such as calcium, magnesium (a natural muscle relaxant), B vitamins and iron.
Because it helps to cleanse the kidneys, it may help to reduce bloating and water retention contributing to menstrual symptoms like breast tenderness, bloating and that ‘full’ feeling in the uterus that often comes along with cramps.